Some More Barns

A tiny Barn

Last Christmas, several of the SSOBB members participated in a Secret Santa swap among ourselves. The gift I gave was a box filled with scraps, which usually brings the recipient bits of fabric she doesn't have in her stash anyway. Once I started poking through my scraps the urge to make something with them surfaced. I wanted to include it in the box. I didn't have a lot of time so I limited myself to what I could make in one evening. I was thinking of a mug rug, but this, being an SSOBB exchange, I decided it had to feature a barn.
I was thinking of the old dilapidated barns that stand forlornly in fields. The paint is pretty  much gone and maybe there are gaps in the siding. The roof bows and the barn tilts.  I chose not to include a door. It is somewhere on a side you cannot see and is probably wide open.

Note that the roof was made in a non-conventional manner. I pieced small scraps arranged vertically into a strip. I  made the strip long enough to overhang the walls and simply attached the sky pieces at either end at an angle and trimmed it to the width of the strip.   

6..5" x 7"

A Concocted Barn
Sometimes while free piecing, the end result does not resemble the inspiration or even what I had imagined it would look like. That's what happened with this next barn.

My inspiration was a barn I saw near Brooks, Maine. I liked the salt-box construction with the long sloping roof and also the multi directions of the siding boards.  I also liked the long row of windows in the short wall.

 Did I capture it?... Nope.  Part of the problem is that I was trying to get the two point perspective on a rather small piece of paper and I chose a  different spot for the horizon (my eye level) than that in the photo. Consequently, I drew a compacted sketch. Furthermore, I completely forgot about the wonderful siding pattern, the little window, and the overall size of the barn.

As I have said before, sketches act as a map. They work well if one consults them.  Only, in this case, I didn't.  Don't ask, "why not?", 'cause I don't know the answer.  Just one of those things that happened. The windows and door are bigger than they should have been. I suppose I could have made the barn bigger, but it didn't grow as expected - maybe I was running out of fabric, though I doubt it. Most likely, I was feeling bamboozled by the angles I did create when I cut my fabric. Some of them were downright screwy.  I re-cut some, and made a few adjustments, but still felt frustrated.

The work hung on my design wall for weeks and then one day I decided just to keep going and not be so particular about it.  After all, what I had created could have been a barn... a log barn, with a big faded door and a row of screened windows.  Barns (real or make-believe) have character. That's what one makes them so interesting.  And, free-piecing is sure to capture that when you let it.

Approx. 15" x 14"

Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Julie's book.  Don't be shy.  Free-piecing opens a whole new world in quilting and Julie will hold your hand the whole way.  The drawing will happen on Saturday night,  JULY 2.

The SSOBB Blog Hop is not done, yet.  Heidi from Germany will be telling you about her barn, beginning July 4.  (libellenquilts.blogspot.com)

P.S.  I also made a Stone Barn... but blogged about it recently so I won't repeat it.  Click on the link to read about it.